


Sinking Feeling

by ThunderDragonfruit



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Temporary Character Death, i guess??, there are very odd circumstances here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:41:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28655868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThunderDragonfruit/pseuds/ThunderDragonfruit
Summary: Hat Kid notices that someone's missing after the Arctic Cruise.
Comments: 15
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

Hat Kid looked out across the icy water, clutching her most recently acquired time piece to herself protectively. Thankfully, for once in her life, no one had actually betrayed her for the sake of acquiring it. But… in a way, hadn’t it ended up the other way around?

It wasn’t any kind of madness or need for power that had driven her to take hold of the ship’s controls and steer it to its doom. She had no desire to go back to the past, she simply needed the time pieces to go home, and to keep them out of the hands of the many, many people who would try to use them for their own purpose. It was an accident, and Hat Kid had fixed the mistake by saving everyone one the boat, and she got her time piece back, so that was that.

Right? But as Hat Kid looked around her own lifeboat and the ones surrounding it, she couldn’t help but feel as if something was missing. She had a sinking (Ha) feeling that only grew worse as time wore on and the boats drifted further from her crime scene, as if she had forgotten something incredibly important.

Oh no.

Hat Kid had never been one to say many words at once, in Earth’s language or her own. But this was important, so despite how her mind screamed at her not to, she turned to the Conductor, who sat next to her keeping an eye on his grandchildren, and quietly asked if he had seen a certain orange cat in chef’s attire. He replied, after scanning the other lifeboats, that no, he hadn’t seen anyone fitting that description, but then turned to yell her same question to the passengers in the other lifeboats.

He must have seen the blatant worry showing on her face, because after he finished his shouting match with the moon penguin on the boat closest to them, he reassured her that they would find Cooking Cat, no doubt about it. That didn’t make her feel much better. He had no way of knowing that for sure.

She waited while the shouts of her message being relayed from boat to boat echoed across the water. She could very well have simply teleported back to her ship a while ago, but she had felt the need to stay with her friends, and now there was no way she could leave, not until she knew that Cooking Cat was safe.

She was dragged out of her thoughts by a clawed hand on her shoulder. The Conductor said something to her, it might have been an apology, or a consolation, but she hadn’t really been aware since that first realization, and the frown on his face told her all that she needed to know. She felt hot tears sliding down her face before she could even register what he had said, and before she knew it she was bawling her eyes out in front of everyone on the lifeboat.

Cooking Cat was dead! And what’s more, it was all her fault! She was no better than Mustache Girl, and the Directors, and the Snatcher, and Vanessa, and all of the people who had tried to kill her. She might be even worse, because she had succeeded! At least the denizens of Earth had the decency to  _ fail _ at killing her, but Cooking Cat had been nothing but nice during Hat Kid’s whole time on Earth, she would go as far to say that she was the only person who hadn’t made an attempt to murder her. But now she was on a ship that was probably at the bottom of the icy cold ocean by now, and Hat Kid was the one to blame for it.

Hat Kid didn’t know how long she cried for, but it must have been a long time, because there were still wet marks on her cheeks when she lifted up her head to see that they were all being picked up by a passing boat. She figured there was no point in staying any longer, (she might as well leave before she can sink this ship too) so, still sniffling, she quietly waved goodbye to the Conductor and beamed herself up to her ship before he could object.

As usual, she quickly got over the disorienting feeling of suddenly being in a completely different area and haphazardly tossed the ill-gotten time piece into her safe (She might be a murderer now, but she still didn’t think the powerful hourglasses would be any safer in the hands of anyone on Earth) and aimed to get to her bedroom, but simply gave up less than halfway and fell to the floor with an unceremonious  _ thump. _

She lay there for a while, and was vaguely aware of Rumbi inserting themself under her arm. It was a valiant attempt at comforting her, considering they didn’t have any limbs. The last thing she processed before drifting off into unconsciousness (on her floor, no less) was something cold drifting close.

* * *

When Hat Kid woke up, the first thing she realized after remembering the events of the previous day was that she was in her own bed. She  _ distinctly _ remembered passing out on the floor in an extremely undignified way, meaning that either she walked to bed without remembering it, or that someone carried her while she was asleep. Her eyes drifted over to her pillow pile where, sure enough, Snatcher sat, flipping through his rather violently titled book. She thought for a moment, but realized that even if Snatcher  _ had _ displayed such an obvious sign of finally succumbing to friendship, he would never admit it in a million years.

The second thing she realized was the familiar scent of food cooking coming from outside her bedroom.  _ She _ wasn’t cooking, and as far as she knew nobody who had broken into her ship had any reason to or even knew how to cook, except for…

That was impossible, though. Nonetheless, she climbed out of bed, took her signature hat off of her nightstand, and made her way towards the kitchen. When she arrived at the door, she hesitated, but got over it and pushed the door open.

And there was Cooking Cat, standing at the stove, making food as if she hadn’t allegedly been at the bottom of the sea just the day before. She turned around, likely having heard the door creak.

“Why, hello there! I was wondering when you’d wake up! I saw that you were still sleeping so I thought I’d whip up some breakfast for-” She was cut off by Hat Kid promptly tackling her in a tight hug, burying her face in Cooking Cat’s shoulder. Despite the suddenness of the action, Cooking Cat returned the gesture.

“Is this about the cruise?”

Hat Kid nodded.

“Well! I’m fine now, so don’t you worry about it anymore! Now, would you like some eggs?”

Hat Kid paused for a moment. She was glad that she apparently hadn’t killed one of her best friends, but she could also tell there was something Cooking Cat was leaving out of that statement. Exactly  _ how _ did she manage to get from the cruise to here without being on any of the lifeboats? But she decided to leave it alone for now. Like she had said, it was all fine now. Hat Kid nodded and watched Cooking Cat finish serving up breakfast.

No matter the case, she was sure she wouldn’t be going on another cruise anytime soon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just to remind yall, this is pretty much just last chapter from the povs of the other characters, meant to clear up some stuff left floating around last chapter.

The Conductor turned to the child sitting next to him.

“We’ll find her, lass. No doubt about it.”

Hat Kid didn’t look up, but she curled just a little further into herself, clutching her hourglass so hard the Conductor was just a little afraid she might break it. He never did figure out what the big deal about those things was.

He was uncomfortable seeing the little lass so worried. She always kept such a cheery air about her, even when she’d had a literal live bomb strapped to her back. She must be rather close to this “Cooking Cat” for her safety to be of such large concern to Hat Kid. He’d never met her (he probably would have run into her at some point if he didn’t spend the whole time on the boat at the bar, to be honest) he hoped, even if just for Hat Kid’s sake, that she was alright.

The little lass had saved just about a quarter of the people on the ship, including his own grandchildren (whom he had failed to save), and _himself_ (whom he had also failed to save). Out of all people, she didn’t deserve to lose anything, or anyone, today.

“HEY, CONDUCTOR!”

It was the penguin on the closest other lifeboat again.

“WE ASKED AROUND, NOBODY’S SEEN THE CAT SINCE THE SHIP SANK!”

Oh no.

How on earth was the Conductor going to break this news to Hat Kid? He couldn’t just tell her outright, but he couldn’t lie to her either. She’d know, she was smart. The Conductor decided to simply do or say something before he could overthink it.

He placed a hand on Hat Kid’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, lass. No one’s seen her.” He knew very well that there was no way the child’s friend could be okay. It seemed she knew that too, considering that there were already tears on her cheeks when she looked back up at him.

The Conductor hugged Hat Kid and patted her back as she began to go off into full on sobbing. He’d seen many temper tantrums in his lifetime, of that he could be sure. This was not one of them. This was full on grieving. He could see the other passengers turn their heads away from the wailing and shift uncomfortably. He didn’t blame them.

By the time they were able to leave the lifeboat, her crying had calmed down to just the occasional sniffle, but the Conductor still worried. Before he could say anything about that though, she was already teleporting back to that spaceship of hers.

He hoped she would be alright.

* * *

Cooking Cat shot up from her place on the floor, faint memories of grinding metal and freezing water still in her head. She looked around, taking in the rafters, the familiar smell, the sounds of people talking… She was back at the Mafia HQ. But wasn’t she just…?

Then it hit her.

Well. That still left another… Six lives. Interesting way to lose one, that was for sure.

Oh! But was everyone else okay? Her mind drifted to the alien child who seemed to have grown attached to her. She should go make sure she was okay.

Cooking Cat set off for the ship in the sky.

* * *

Snatcher was distracted from his book by a loud _thump_ outside of the kid’s bedroom. He briefly considered just going back to reading; It wasn’t his ship, it wasn’t his problem. But he was too curious about what made that noise. It didn’t sound at all like the sound of the disc that slid around the floor of the place. He chuckled slightly at the thought of the little pink and black… _thing_ ’s constant exclamations from the main room.

The ships _tiny goddamn hallways_ were the worst part of the whole ship, no doubt. Snatcher usually preferred to float above the ground, but that was simply not an option in the tubes that connected each room. He could, theoretically, just drift through the walls and take the outside of the ship, but he knew from experience that attempting to fly in zero gravity was an… unpleasant experience, to put it one way.

So, he was confined to worming his way through the hallway like some kind of snake. Since he had been confined to this ghostly form for a century or two, these days it was very rare that he missed having legs.

He currently missed having legs.

After finally making it out of the hallway, the first thing he spotted was the kid laying directly in the middle of the floor. Her pet disc was wedged under her arm.

Immediately, he was reminded of the subconites. It wasn’t at all uncommon for him to find the occasional minion of his passed out in any part of the forest, due to the fact that there weren’t exactly any set bedtimes in a haunted forest and kids could and would run around until they collapsed. They were, after all, just children. It could be easy to forget that.

As such, he knew the typical procedure: usually, he would simply scoop up the minion and drop them off at the village. The subconites’ plush bodies were rather susceptible to damage, and of course he didn’t want any animals or anything to tear them up, since he would be the one fixing it in the end. So it was most efficient to move them. No other reason.

So of course he felt the need to do the same when he saw the hat kid lying there. But there was no reason for it. She was in her ship, there were no dangers here, and even if there were, she wasn’t one of his minions. In fact, he wanted her dead.

Ugh, was he suddenly wanting to be _nice_?

No, he reasoned with himself. He just wanted her to be in good shape so she could complete her contracts, and therefore have a better chance at dying. Yeah, that was it. The kid wouldn’t be liable to attempt any “death wishes” the next day if she had a sore neck. So there.

He looked to his left. He looked to his right. The only other people in the ship currently were the express owls, and they were too busy with their music to ever come out of the machine room. It was all safe. 

He carefully scooped up the kid in his claw as the disc chirped in alarm at him, and began the grueling task of worming his way back through the hallway, this time without jostling the kid sleeping in his hand.

* * *

Cooking Cat climbed in through the window, as usual. She didn’t actually know if there was a dignified way to get into the spaceship, like a real entrance rather than a window, but she figured it didn’t really matter.

She walked quietly to the room that she figured was the kid’s bedroom, and calmed down significantly at the sight of Hat Kid sleeping soundly in her bed. She then padded off to the kitchen to make some breakfast for her; Escaping a sinking ship couldn’t have been the most child friendly experience, and she deserved to wake up to a warm meal.

Time seemed to pass quickly as she went on autopilot performing the task that she was named for. She heard footsteps coming towards the kitchen just as she was almost done. When she heard the door creak she turned around.

“Why, hello there! I was wondering when you’d wake up! I saw that you were still sleeping so I thought I’d whip up some breakfast for-” Hat Kid promptly tackled her into a tight hug, which Cooking Cat returned. She must have noticed she was missing, then. This would be hard to explain.

“Is this about the cruise?”

A nod.

“Well! I’m fine now, so don’t you worry about it anymore! Now, would you like some eggs?” Cooking Cat knew that Hat Kid was a smart kitten. She knew there was something Cooking Cat wasn’t saying, no doubt. But apparently she elected to leave it for later, because she accepted the breakfast offer.

Cooking Cat sighed in relief, glad that a rather hard conversation had at least been postponed.

She turned back to the stove to serve up some of the food. She couldn’t help but worry, though. How do you explain to a fairly young child that you had literally _died?_ Death was already a complicated concept to explain to children, but someone dying and coming back to life had to be a completely different ballgame, no matter how normal it might be for cats.

She turned around, holding the plates, and turned over to Hat Kid to ask where her dining table was located, and found her standing near the door, not far from where she’d been just a minute ago, but behind her peeking through the door…

  
Cooking Cat did _not_ drop the plates or the food, which she was proud of, but that certainly didn’t stop her from yelling at the top of her lungs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> decided to add another chapter since this one was gonna start getting far longer than the first chapter real quick. after that one we should be all done tho. also next chapter is going to actually be new stuff, not just alt povs.
> 
> kudos to a passerby for having a 100% correct prediction last chapter. great job.

**Author's Note:**

> after I finished the last act of arctic cruise i noticed that cooking cat was like. completely missing from any of the lifeboats with zero explanation for it whatsoever and flipped out a bit, so this is based mostly off that. one thing i noticed about the arctic cruise is that unlike every previous chapter, no one actually betrays you. you're the one who sets off the final incident that ends the chapter.
> 
> this is a one shot, but i'm considering writing a second chapter from the other character's perspectives, shedding light on some of the unexplained stuff in this fic such as how on earth cooking cat actually survived that, but i think it'll depend on whether or not people read this and like it, so if you think i should do that let me know.
> 
> if you think there are improvements on this i can make or you see anything misspelled or anything like that please let me know.


End file.
